Sunday, 13 October 2013

Memories of several Bottoms

On
Friday evening, I trotted along to London’s West End down to see David Walliams’s Bottom.

Yes,
yes – I know. I know it’s been done before, but apart from one tweet, not by
me. So I’m afraid that you, dear readers, have to put up with it being done
here.

The
fourth production in the inaugural season of the Michael Grandage Company sees A
Midsummer Night’s Dream playing to packed houses in the West End – and the main
reason for all the bottoms on seats is less that it’s the Bard and more the star casting.

Walliams
has been cast as Bottom, while Sheridan Smith takes on the traditional dual
roles of Titania and Hippolyta.

The
former brings the pulling power of Little Britain to the production, and
has been directed to camp up the part for all he’s worth.

Smith
brings with her the success of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, plus stints on the Royle
Family
and Jonathan Creek, and has been directed in such a way that you wouldn’t
know about that televisual CV unless you recognised her name or checked out the
programme.

My
own first Dream was way back in September 1976 at the Bolton Octagon, when
a seat in the gallery cost just 50p – the ticket is still pasted into an old
scrapbook.

It
had been our introduction to Shakespeare a year earlier at school (when I’d
read Bottom in class) and this was the first live production of a play by the
Bard that I’d seen.

Then
in April 1979, it was the Fairfield High School for Girls annual production
(tickets 60p – there’s inflation for you), with me donning something like a
sackcloth costume as Peter Quince; a performance that the local paper described
as being “acted with authority”.

Actually,
what I remember most was being able to say “bloody” twice in a speech – in
front of the headmistress.

It
was the one performance my maternal grandmother ever saw me in, and she and my
mother decided that I had a likeness to one of my mother’s brothers. I’m not
sure I’ve recovered yet.

But
back to that Octagon production. Wilfred Harrison, who was also joint director,
played Bottom. The notes in that scrapbook only mention his performance, but although this is an ensemble piece, the Mechanicals are what grabs the
attention of most audiences, precisely because of the timeless comedy.

In
1991, for instance, Roy Hudd’s Bottom is just about the only thing I remember
of a production at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre – apart from the less-than-brilliant weather.

When it's not raining, it’s
a play that is superbly suited to outside staging.

In
1987, the Duke’s Playhouse in Lancaster staged its first promenade production
in the city’s Williamson Park, around and including the Ashton Memorial as a
backdrop.

Andy Serkis as Lysander in Lancaster. Puck to the left

That Dream,
with a cast that included, as Lysander, Andy Serkis – now best known as Gollum
in the Lord of the Rings films – was utterly magical.

Of
the ones I’ve seen, it remains my favourite production. The lovers were
strongly done even if the Mechanicals didn’t make a major impression in the memory bank:
Puck was the stand-out, although unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the
actor who played him in full faun get up.

But
back to the here and now, and Michael Grandage’s new production.

It’s
played at F1 pace – just two hours for the whole play to unwind – and that has
some benefits and some pitfalls.

Some
of the languorous sense of the poetry is lost by charging at it like this – I
was mightily relieved when Puck’s closing speech was allowed its necessary time
– but it also works well in particular places, not least in the chaotic row
between the four lovers in the forest as Oberon and Puck looks on.

Indeed,
what Grandage and his company have done is remove any reverential attitude and
emphasised the play’s physical comedy – the majority of which is quite clearly
there in the text.

And
they also haven’t ducked the point that it’s largely not about lurve, but sex –
certainly in terms of Titania and Bottom.

Elizabethan
audiences would have known, for instance, that an ass had a large penis, so
Bottom’s transformation into just such an animal, combined with Titania’s
awakening under the spell, is quite clearly about lust.*

Just
imagine what would happen if all those bored schoolchildren being introduced to
Shakespeare via this play were told that it was about sex?

Anyway,
this is very good fun.

And
more than that, it was thoroughly enjoyed by an audience that included a great
many people who clearly don’t go to the theatre often – and most certainly not
for Shakespeare.

The
production has had some brief moments of song and dance inserted – and some
snippets of pop classics – and where used, they work.

Gavin Fowler as Puck

While
the mechanicals are camper than the proverbial row of tents, the fairies are a
group of crusty hippies with a bit of edge.

And
the lovers are far less insipid and boring than they can be.

Of
the cast, Smith was excellent – all husky voice and powerful allure.

Walliams
gets to nick the show – there’s more ham on display than in a Spanish deli, and
anyone older than a teen will wonder if they’re seeing the reincarnation of
Frankie Howerd at one point in particular – but again, in the context of this
kind of production, it works.

Of
the rest of a good ensemble, special mentions for Gavin Fowler as Puck – he
moves superbly – Katherine Kingsley as a fabulously feisty Helena and Pádraic
Delaney as Oberon/Theseus.

Christopher
Oram’s sets work well, as do his costumes. In particular, I liked Puck’s
trousers, which tallied with the attire of the rest of the fairies, but, in the
side fringe, just hinted at a faun’s furry legs.

It’s
a thoroughly enjoyable romp – more Carry On than delicate rom-com – but it’s
about time that the Dream got this sort of shake-it-up treatment to rescue it from
any perception of it being fey, rather infantile and ‘safe’.

Finally,
just to note that we considered ourselves lucky in finding – and being able to
get a table without booking – Piazza, an Italian restaurant that almost backs
onto the theatre.

An
independent amid the mass of chains in the vicinity, it did a very pleasant pomodoro (according to The Other
Half) and a very nice diavola pizza for me – excellent, doughy base, with fresh
tomato sauce, spiced minced beef, red onions, pepperoni, mozzarella and green jalapeños
to get the endorphins flowing.

Really
not pricy for London, with very pleasant service. That’s one to remember.

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London-based journalist, writer, photographer and artist, with one Other Half and three cats.
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